#complex societies

[the-funtime-autocrat]

“At one point, the concept of “Social Priorities” represented a Cultural Body in European nations. It was the organic nature of a society, localized and centralized in various regards, and the nature of individuals of a similar group. The idea of a “Common Good” with people playing their respective roles in a natural order was normal and genuine.

At present, this has been perverted as money and resources are extracted from much of the population to support those deemed “worthy” or “in need.” The endless looting and parasitism breeds hostility and resentment as people are forced to care for others they’ve never met. The local support basis that once existed in mutual aid and help has been eroded. With it comes the decline of society.”

[olduvai]

However much we like to think of ourselves as something special in world history, in fact industrial societies are subject to the same principles that caused earlier societies to collapse. If civilization collapses again, it will be from failure to take advantage of the current reprieve, a reprieve both detrimental and essential to our anticipated future.

Joseph Tainter, 1988 The Collapse of Complex Societies

[theblogattheendoftheworld]

When Ancient Societies Hit a Million People, Vengeful Gods Appeared

Belief in a punishing, moralizing god follows the rise of complex societies, new research shows.

"For we know Him who said, 'And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.'" Ezekiel 25:17.

The God depicted in the Old Testament may sometimes seem wrathful. And in that, he's not alone; supernatural forces that punish evil play a central role in many modern religions.

But which came first: complex societies or the belief in a punishing god?

A new study suggests that the formation of complex societies came first and that the beliefs in such gods helped unite people under a common higher power.

[thejaymo]

Intra-elite competition is one of the most important factors explaining massive waves of social and political instability, which periodically afflict complex, state-level societies. This idea was proposed by Jack Goldstone nearly 30 years ago. Goldstone tested it empirically by analyzing the structural precursors of the English Civil War, the French Revolution, and seventeenth century’s crises in Turkey and China. Other researchers (including Sergey Nefedov, Andrey Korotayev, and myself) extended Goldstone’s theory and tested it in such different societies as Ancient Rome, Egypt, and Mesopotamia; medieval England, France, and China; the European revolutions of 1848 and the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917; and the Arab Spring uprisings. Closer to home, recent research indicates that the stability of modern democratic societies is also undermined by excessive competition among the elites (see Ages of Discord for a structural-demographic analysis of American history). Why is intra-elite competition such an important driver of instability?

Peter Turchin Intra-Elite Competition: A Key Concept for Understanding the Dynamics of Complex Societies - Peter Turchin

[wotfigo]

The Collapse of Modern High Tech Civilization

 The form of (todays) technic society I’ve termed abundance industrialism is on its way out through history’s exit turnstile, and an entire world of institutions and activities familiar to all of us is going with it.It doesn’t require any particular genius or prescience to grasp this, merely the willingness to recognize that if something is unsustainable, sooner or later it won’t be sustained. Of course that’s the sticking point, because what can’t be sustained at this point is the collection of wildly extravagant energy- and resource-intensive habits that used to pass for a normal lifestyle in the world’s industrial nations, and has recently become just a little less normal than it used to be. Those lifestyles, and most of what goes with them, only existed in the first place because a handful of the world’s nations burned through half a billion years of fossil sunlight in a few short centuries, and stripped the planet of most of its other concentrated resource stocks into the bargain.That’s the unpalatable reality of the industrial era. Despite the rhetoric of universal betterment that was brandished about so enthusiastically by the propagandists of the industrial order, there were never enough of any of the necessary resources to make that possible for more than a small fraction of the world’s population, or for more than a handful of generations. Nearly all the members of our species who lived outside the industrial nations, and a tolerably large number who resided within them, were expected to carry most of the costs of reckless resource extraction and ecosystem disruption while receiving few if any of the benefits. They’ll have plenty of company shortly: abundance industrialism is winding down, but its consequences are not, and people around the world for centuries and millennia to come will have to deal with the depleted and damaged planet our actions have left them.That’s a bitter pill to swallow, and the likely aftermath of the industrial age won’t do anything to improve the taste From; http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/a-camp-amid-ruins.html

[protoslacker]

Tainter's law derives from thermodynamics. As we know (or should know) thermodynamics is not only a good idea, it is the law!

Ugo Bardi at Cassandra's legacy.Tainter's law: where is the physics? via Composing.